Yandy Smith, entertainment manager to the stars, cast member of Love and Hip Hop (Image: Vh1)

by Yandy Smith

So it’s the holiday season, but many of us may not feel the holiday spirit. Inflation is at an all-time high, the job market is still at a low, and natural disasters have devastated our businesses, communities and home. Considering the climate of the country, I can understand why many of us might be feeling more like the Grinch and less like Santa. However, in spite of the gloom that may be hard to ignore, we should remember that above all, the holiday season is a time to appreciate your family and give thanks for all the positives in your life.

I know you’re used to getting business advice from me, but sometimes in order to do good business you need to take the time to appreciate the things that matter most. So my advice this month is to make your personal life your business for the holiday season. If that shocked you, well, what’s coming next is going to blow you away: Stow away those laptops, put the BlackBerrys and iPhones on silent and be thankful for the simple things like life, love and family.

So much time is spent all year trying to make a better way for ourselves and our families that we often end up neglecting the very things we cherish the most. The hustle to achieve the American dream leaves many of us working long hours, taking more business trips and spending most of the days attached to our mobile devices. I read somewhere recently that 88% of American adults own a cellphone and/or laptop, and those mobile devices played a central role in their daily lives. In some cases, the devices became more of a priority than family and home life.

Sixty-seven percent of cellphone owners find themselves checking their phone for messages, alerts, or calls more frequently than monitoring their children at play, even when they don’t notice their phone ringing or vibrating. Some 18% of cellphone owners say they do this “frequently.”

Seventy-one percent of owners use their phone, check messages or emails, or get entertained by social networks during dinner and parenting time (i.e. homework time), and 44% of cellphone owners have slept with their phone next to their bed because they wanted to make sure they didn’t miss any calls, text messages, or other updates during the night. Twenty-nine percent of cellphone owners describe it as “something they can’t imagine living without.”

Are you alarmed or shocked by these statistics? Probably not if your anything like me. These results, sad to say, are the norm for most of us. So my goal with this blog is not to ignite the hustlapreneur in you, but challenge you to take a day off from the grind. Instead of spending these few days off closing out a few deals and finishing up those overdue projects, turn off the business phone and indulge in an abundance of some much-needed, uninterrupted family and personal time. Hustla’s orders! You can thank me later.